Category Archives: Commentary

Sable: This was the first Folk Fest where I could feel my stamina slipping. Whether it was coming off from a OSHEAGA-packed weekend in Montreal or just general summer lethargy, I had to shake myself awake in the Saturday afternoon heat and will myself to get out of bed on Sunday. However, I was still there for a majority of the festival and I was happy to soak in the tunes and the rays to fuel me for another year.

Twila: This year in addition to my Folk on the Road duties, I also volunteered for the Greetings crew. The extra-early starts combined with the late nights of photos etc. definitely took a toll on me—meaning I ended up taking a few serious tarp naps (sometimes when I thought I’d just rest my eyes).

Note: Twila’s sister, Ardelle, took this accompanying pic of Twila passed out with a death grip on her coffee thermos.

Favourite Festival Moment

Twila: Having just mentioned that I took an unintended tarp nap (or two) and the fact that I am still recovering from lack of sleep I’d still have to say that my favourite festival moments all derived from the camaraderie of volunteering. The people I met while volunteering were interesting and all had fantastic tales of folk fests past. Most of my folkie friends have been volunteering for 10+ years, so I have a ways to go before I unlock that level of volunteer achievement, but I think that if they’ll have me that I will be back again next year.

Sable: Folk on the Road has been attending the EFMF for the past years now as media but this year I feel like we really hit our stride in the media tent. I enjoyed saying hello to all the familiar faces and volunteers in the media tent day after day. The volunteers do an amazing job of keeping a quiet and safe place for media to work as well as liaising with artists and their agents to book interviews. I wish I had this crew with me throughout the year to follow-up on e-mails and phone calls. It makes doing FOTR, which is a volunteer and passion driven project as well, so much easier in achieving our goal of sharing the work of fantastic artists.

Favourite New Discovery

Sable: For me it’s a close call between Marlon Williams and Darlingside but I think Darlingside wins out for me this time. I love the cooperative use of the microphone which creates a dreamy, choral sound with the soft strums of their acoustic. They sound like one musical organism when they’re all singing and standing together like that. I hope this is not the last time I see them perform live.

Twila: I was also really delighted by Darlingside’s harmonies, but Ten Strings and a Goat Skin get my vote for my favourite new musical discovery at EFMF 2017. The trio was having such a good time, you couldn’t help but be pulled into the joy in their music making. Also I loved how they slipped between different instrumental sets and songs, with ease. I can hardly wait to see them play again next weekend at the Bear Creek Folk Fest!

There is a reason that The Jerry Cans won EFMF’s emerging artist award … musically they make everything better. At this session, they jammed along with everyone, creating a truly beautiful folk fest workshop experience. Just thinking back on how The Jerry Cans fit themselves into this workshop brings a smile to my face.

There was a moment of utter vocal duo beauty from Allison Russell from Birds of Chicago and Rhiannon Giddens during that workshop. It was the perfect vocal pairing and they knew it too as they gazes at each other interweaving their melodic and harmonic lines for Barley by Birds of Chicago.

Last week I was invited to attend a house-concert featuring Pictou County, Nova Scotia’s own Dave Gunning. I leapt at the opportunity not only because I have always been impressed by Gunning’s performances whenever I’ve managed to catch him playing at festivals, but also because the concept of house-concerts interests me. If you are like me and haunt your favourite folk-artist’s websites looking for opportunities to see them perform, you have probably seen listings like “Private Event/Concert” or “House Concert” and have been stumped by how to get invited to such exclusive functions — or you might be asking what a house-concert even is. For the uninitiated a house-concert is a performance held in a home. Usually it features a solo artist or duo and because it is held in a private residence it is often not advertised in traditional methods. Begging the question how do you find out about them?

Well first off because they are held people’s houses there is a level of trust involved — most people (and rightly so!) don’t just invite random people off the street into their homes — so the best way to get in the loop is to find a friend who already goes to a house concert series and convince them to let you to tag along for their next house-concert adventure. Suddenly you aren’t a stranger but a friend of a friend. If you don’t think that you know anyone who attends (or hosts) house-concerts you should ask everyone just to make sure. Many people know at least one person who does. It might end up looking a little bit like a game of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon to wrangle an invite, but that is one route to finding out about house concerts. Also, consider volunteering for folk fest or a folk club, you would be helping keep folk music alive in your community and as an added bonus with an influx of new folkie-loving friends someone is sure to be “in the know” about the house-concert circuit. Another approach is to sign-up for mailing lists. This might seem obvious, but signing up for the local folk club’s and your favourite artist’s mailing lists and Facebook pages will allow them to alert you to when there is going to be an event in your area or check out the Home Routes’ schedule in your area. Home Routes is an organization that curates house concerts and acts kind of like an online dating site connecting their house-concert hosts with potential audience members. On their site you can see that an event is happening in your area and at what day and time, you fill in an online form including your contact information and then the host contacts you.

If this all seems like a bit too much hassle for you, I urge you to reconsider. There is something incredibly special about listening to world class musicians play to an intimate audience of under fifty people. On Saturday night, Dave Gunning had the crowd singing along to “A Game Goin’ On” (co-written with David Francey) louder than most theatre performances (with correspondingly larger audiences) I’ve attended in recent memory or how about hearing Gunning’s explanation of his dog staring at him while he wrote “To Be With You” from his album Lift while your host’s own dog darts between chairs. The venue of a house-concert lends the performance an air of immediacy and relevancy that tends to disintegrate at the larger festival level. Gunning was able to share, without rushing through it based on strict timings, the backstory (involving a motorhome billet, a festival in New York, and a recounting of an NPR broadcast featuring a Rabbi) for “Sing It Louder” co-written with Sally Spring.

Dave Gunning at Saturday’s house-concert

With “Sing It Louder” Spring and Gunning remind us that we have to act on our convictions and not just mouth along with the masses “If we stand and rise together, There’s change within our power, I am preachin’ to the choir to sing it louder”. Gunning’s passion for his Nova Scotia home became more and more evident as the evening went on and he acts on his principles as evidenced through his involvement with the Clean the Mill project, and the IWK Health Centre in Halifax. Hearing Gunning perform in such a fantastic atmosphere makes me immensely grateful to the hosts, Gord and Lisa, for opening up their home. This was only my second ever house-concert, so I asked if there was certain behaviours that were frowned upon (I figured remembering that you were in someone else’s home and to behave appropriately was a given, but wondered if there was something else to keep in mind) to which Gord simply told me not to chat when the concert was happening. Sage advice for house-concert and folk club alike — the rest of the audience isn’t there to hear about your week — and such disruption certainly wasn’t a problem at Saturday’s show.

Keep your ear to the ground for murmurings about house-concerts and know that rumour has it that Dave Gunning will be back through Edmonton (at one of our folk clubs) this coming fall, so check your local folk club seasons when they are released … or better yet sign up for their mailing lists!

Some links for mailing lists of interest for Edmonton-based folkies (you can also sign-up for news in person at most folk club concerts):

Twila: This week has been tough – no live banjo music serenading my daily activities, which have included packing up the tarps for another year, washing industrial amounts of both DEET and sunscreen out of my clothes, editing a ton of festival photos and drinking black coffee like it is going out of style.

I’m not sure if the 16-18 hour days on site (Saturday and Sunday) were what did me in this year, but it has been an extra rough Folk-Over. So as we return to our previously scheduled lives, let’s take stock of what awesomeness happened at EFMF 2016.

Sable: Folk Fest is equal parts of thrilling and exhausting. I was able to bike down to the festival all four days and I didn’t have to rainproof all my electronic equipment! It was a waning on the hot Saturday afternoon with hours of intense sun but I gained momentum with my consecutive interviews on Sunday with Chloe Albert and The East Pointers.

Thank goodness for the annual tradition of Folkover Brunch with Twila and friends on the Monday following EFMF. I think it’s one of the best methods of recovery from so much musical enrichment.

It is a series of these sort of moments that touch us individually that makes up the magic that is a folk festival. My festival moment was at the “Losing Traditions” workshop on Saturday afternoon on Stage 3. In real life I’m a musicologist, who studies Western classical music, imagine my surprise and delight when Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen the violinist of Dreamers’ Circus stood up and started rocking out with some unaccompanied Bach only to be joined by Ale Carr (cittern) and Nikolaj Busk (accordion). My love of folk music was instantly combined with some of the most gorgeous Western classical music around. I was hooked, and haven’t stopped talking about them or that moment to anyone who will listen.

Imagine this being performed on the corner of a workshop stage in the middle of Gallagher park –PURE MAGIC!

Sable:

Nathaniel Rateliff

My favourite festival moment was dancing with the majority of my tarp mates during Nathaniel Rateliff and The Night Sweats Mainstage act on Sunday night. The four day EFMF can feel like a long haul with many hours in the sun and stepping over bubbling, muddy grass, but there is that cathartic release when you can just dance all that energy out. The hill was hopping on Sunday night. I mean, how can you stay still when a hit like this comes on?

Favourite New Discovery:

Sable:

Sarah MacDougall

I was a fan of Sarah MacDougall. She has this soulful warmth in her vocal tone that really resonated with me, especially in her Swedish rep. It also didn’t hurt that she had some of the best festival fashion I saw at the festival.

Dreamers’ Circus

Twila: Unsurprisingly Dreamers’ Circus is my top fest pick. I was at all their performances this past weekend, I even re-jigged my schedule on Sunday to catch more of their music. Not only was there the J.S. Bach influence, on further listening I wonder now if I hear shades of minimalism – Philip Glass or Terry Riley? And other composers like maybe a little Aaron Copland? Fantastic stuff. As far as I can tell these fabulous musicians are only performing in Denmark and Japan for the foreseeable future, but I will definitely be keeping tabs on them.

I was waffling between the “Ancestors” workshop and this one. But the stage-wide jam of Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison Blues put this one over the top for me. Tom Russell and Mike Farris’ interactions made this workshop all the more enjoyable.

I am always a fan of a good workshop host and Rose Cousins led the way with the perfect balance of wit and admiration for her musical colleagues. I loved this sisterhood of vocal power on stage. Cousins was able to round it all out with comedic banter and getting them all to think of their Olympic events which ranged from sleeping to tarp rolling.

Favourite Festival Food:

Sable: I’m so glad Curry N Hurry is back because I absolutely love eating curry that looks like it has been stewing all day in a large pan. Seriously, there is something so comforting to have large spoonfuls of bubbling curry over coconut rice, crispy samosas, and fresh nan.

Twila: Coffee from Kicking Horse Coffee, now also being served at the bottom of the Hill (my legs thank you).

*N.B. Although this is a post about festival favourites, I need to state a regret. I didn’t get to see The Steep Canyon Rangersdue to scheduling conflicts. This made me incredibly sad and I live in the hope that they are back in town soon, so I can catch them then. – TB

*N.B. I am sad to say I was absent for Saturday afternoon to early evening. Folk Fest is a sacred time, but alas, when friend plans a wedding, they don’t always take a folkie’s priorities into consideration. I have serious regrets for not making the “Losing Traditions” workshop with The East Pointers, Dreamer’s Circus, and The Stepcrew. I heard there was jamming on Bach! – SC

Amongst all the technology that is a necessity for many touring Artists from unique electric instruments to loops pedals, there’s still something magical about the simplicity of a cappella singing. One can forget that a single voice has the power to generate images in the minds of listeners.

One such musician at Edmonton Folk Music Festival this year is Matthew Byrne. In his opening Friday workshop, Byrne introduced himself to the audience by putting down his guitar and stepping forward to the microphone to offer a sad folk tale of a maiden who had a fleeting romance with a sailor. His voice had a strength that sounded like it was forged from many evenings sharing stories around a kitchen table in Newfoundland. There is an honesty in his tone that moves me to listen to tales of loss about characters I have never met although they feel real to me through his words.

There is something familiar when listening to folk melodies. They have such an ancient resilience about them after so many years of repetition. I can think of no better way than to deliver that message than through the vocal medium. Byrne is a refreshing reminder that there will always be a place for storytelling when there is a voice that urges ears to listen.

Sable: I have always had a soft spot for close knit vocal harmonies and that is what I hear in this trio of Staves ladies.

As well, I have enjoyed watching the folktastic rise of The East Pointers comprised of Tim Chaisson, Koady Chaisson, and Jake Charron on fiddle, banjo, and guitar respectively. Who doesn’t love a good reel and jig?

Twila: Considering that as a kid that I begged my parents for flute lessons after listening to albums by the Chieftains, I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to hear Matt Molloy & John Carty with Arty McGlynn this coming weekend.

There should be smooth tunes from these singer-songwriters from the UK and Sweden in this joint session. I hear the delicate hint of vocal vulnerability in these voices which I love for storytelling. Fingers crossed for some excellent melodic and harmonic collaborations that will hopefully result from this workshop.

Not sure about the session name – I briefly wondered if it was a reference to the David Bowie song from 1979 with the tense changed, but really why change the tense? Regardless of the session name, I am excited to see what magic this workshop cooks up. Workshops are at their best when everyone jumps in and jams together, making the whole stronger than the parts – and I’m excited to see how these musicians from all over the British Commonwealth (in case you were wondering: Hannam – Alberta/Jersey, Channel Islands; Byrne – Newfoundland; MacDougall – Yukon/Sweden; The Mae Trio – Australia) help one another tell stories with song.

The Return of Old Favourites

Sable: Sunday Main Stage 7-8 PM

Folk Fests are always great for new discoveries but it is always heart-warming to see old favorites return. I can’t wait to hear the soaring and emotive vocals of LP. Her last performance at EFMF left quite an impression on me and I look forward to her Sunday mainstage time with excitement.

It’s challenging to understand workshop etiquette. It’s a format unique where musicians who have never met are supposed to make music together for an hour and a half. There was a reason that Stage 6 was packed on Friday evening with names like Bears Den, Danny Michel, Jenn Grant, and John Smith. The talent is all there together on stage; whether it succeeds or fails is dependent on the participating Artists.

I find the most successful workshops are ones where there is an Artist or host that is the right balance of being bossy yet friendly. That way they can decide on a song and also indicate who should be the next Artist in the progression of solos. Watching a workshop where is no interaction is like watching kids move the skipping ropes for double dutch but nobody is brave enough to jump in.

The Magical Moments Friday session on Stage 6 finally hit its stride once they realized that doing cover songs was a good place to start. Bears Den started the series of covers with Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark.” Everybody from the fiddle player to the trumpet players from different bands jumped in on some solo lines. Even singer/songwriter, Danny Michel, put his guitar down and hopped in behind the drum kit. John Smith followed up with “I’m on Fire,” and when it came Jenn Grant’s turn, she held her smartphone and referenced it to sing the lyrics of Leonard Cohen’s “Lover, Lover, Lover” with confidence. The final sounds of the workshop were the interwoven voices of Bears Den and Jenn Grant looping the word, Lover.

It was another example of spontaneous music-making that exists in a fleeting moment of time.

There is a sense of homecoming when returning to a folk festival, and especially the Edmonton Folk Music Festival, which is my hometown festival. The view from Gallagher Hill calms my heart as I see the last remaining traces of sunset glow on the edges of the downtown skyline. It’s small moments like having the perimeter security wishing you a happy folk fest as you walk on site, the crinkle of plastic tarps underneath your feet, familiar faces of friends, and the smell of deep-friend maple syrup smelling goodness in the air.

Of Monsters and Men beckons the surrounding crowd to rise soon after the start of their set and the audience claps in tandem with the percussive drums that echo into the night. Folk Fest has just begun.